Calendar

Ideas still matter – Ron Paul takes 2nd in Nevada caucuses

The most interesting story out of Nevada was not Mitt Romney winning on the strength of near unanimous Mormon support. Or Hillary outgunning the union endorsements of Barrack Obama.

The story was the second place finish of Ron Paul. Paul, the strange and glorious internet phenom, the one candidate whose ideological purity argues, somewhat in vain, that ideas still matter in American politics.

Paul, who beat out John McCain for second, pulled a huge upset for the placing. McCain, from neighboring Arizona, echoes much of what used to be standard issue western conservatism- Goldwater and Laxalt. What Paul did to trump him in Nevada suggests that small government libertarianism still has cache and value. While much of the Republican coalition nationally has abandoned these values, they still exist, apparently in sin-city style Nevada.